New Dresses for Daughter

I've got the pieces cut out for Daughter's wrap dress and with any luck I'll get them sewn together today or tomorrow.  I've made a deal with myself to sew for one hour a day and I'm going to try to stick with that.  Not only will it get all my sewing projects done and allow me to start new ones, but it'll keep me sane, too.  I really need to spend less time working and more time doing what's fun.

I love to make knit dresses for my daughter.  And since she wears dresses every single day (with no exceptions--when it's cold she wears stockings) there's always a need for more dresses.  Years ago, I went looking for knit dresses for her and discovered that they cost an arm and a leg -- 35 bucks for a little girl's dress is just ridiculous.  Especially when I know it's probably about $8 (retail!) worth of fabric.

So I started looking for patterns -- and was pretty disappointed there, too.  Oh, I found a few, but not really what I was looking for.  So, I said to myself, "Self, get to work."  And I replied to myself, "Yes, ma'am."

The result of that little conversation with myself and myself is a cute little wrap dress pattern.  I've had to redraw it a couple of times as Daughter keeps growing and needing a bigger size (kids do that I've noticed), but it's by far her (and mine!) favorite dress pattern.

I'm experimenting with some color blocking this time.  Making the sleeves and one of the fronts a different fabric is more interesting, I think. The print fabric is interlock from JoAnn's and while I've done my fair share of complaining about the quality of fabric available there, this line seems to be pretty good.  The purple dress is made from this same line and had held up reasonably well.

These little dresses sew up remarkably quick and easy, so I should be able to get this one done in my next sewing session.  Then, it's another shirt for Jordan, as his are finally starting to wear out.